Our Focus: Housing for All

Deep Community Commitment

Supporting the community is in the DNA of Canopy Realtor® Association, and today the Canopy Housing Foundation is the biggest manifestation of that long-term commitment. 

The Foundation is well known for its annual Realtors® Care Day, its well-established Habitat Support and Community Grants programs and much more. New to Haywood County in 2020, the Foundation was a key reason the Realtors® there chose to become a part of Canopy Realtor® Association in 2019. Haywood officially became part of the Association on January 1, 2020.

Looking Back

Charitable activities by the Association date back many decades. A surge in the group’s philanthropic activity in the 1970s set the stage for an ongoing charitable emphasis since that time.

Here are 1970s highlights: raised $7,000 to help with the restoration of the Statue of Liberty in New York, was active in the Make America Better Committee, undertook beautification efforts and participated in the Light the Night campaign against crime. 

In 1973, the Association began an annual golf tournament in honor of Will Crutcher, who served as Association president in 1967 and died in his 50s. The tournament would be held for decades.

In the early 1980s, the Association’s Community Revitalization Committee raised money and renovated four dilapidated houses just east of uptown Charlotte, then gave the refurbished homes to the city to rent to low-income families. Community work such as this was a precursor to Charlotte becoming one of the early Habitat for Humanity chapters in the U.S. and the Association being a strong Habitat supporter.

Establishing the Foundation

In 1985, the Association established a Charitable Foundation. In 1987, the Foundation raised $50,000 for the Charlotte chapter of Habitat — an amount that included $22,000 from a Charlotte reception that attracted former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, in town for a Habitat building blitz. 

The next year, in 1988, the Foundation raised $17,000 for the local Habitat chapter. Realtors® also built a house during annual Habitat campaigns in the late 1980s and into the 1990s.

In 1990, the Foundation raised more than $20,000 through a local designer house and “Wheel of Fortune” event. The funds helped sponsor “Housing Help,” which connected people with housing resources. 

Also in the early 1990s, the Foundation supported One Special Christmas to benefit the region’s Empty Stocking Fund during the holidays. Working with the Central Piedmont Community College Woodworkers, the two groups raised $40,000 for One Special Christmas in 1990. Five years later, the effort brought in $70,000. 

Focus on Housing

The Foundation continued to support good causes in the 2000s. Beginning in 2001 and continuing under four successive presidents — Mike Rash, Bill Mathers, Tony Smith and David Barnhardt — the idea of focusing exclusively on community housing needs and formalizing the Foundation’s financial structure emerged. The effort included the establishment of an endowment fund at the Foundation For The Carolinas, which occurred in spring 2003. 

Several months later, in August 2003, the name of the Foundation was changed to the Housing Opportunity Foundation. Its charge was to focus on housing for all and continue the Association’s Home Giveaway program, which had begun in 2002.

The Home Giveaway

David Barnhardt, president in 2004, remembers the Home Giveaway program well. It consisted of a drawing for a new house among first-time buyers who made well below the county’s median income and who had completed a homeownership program through the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Housing Partnership (now DreamKey Partners). “I got to hand the keys of a free house to someone — that’s pretty incredible,” Barnhardt recalls. 

The Home Giveaway ran from 2002 through 2007, with the exception of 2003, when the Housing Opportunity Foundation was being organized. 

Realtors® Care Day and More

To impact housing in an even bigger way, the Foundation discontinued the Home Giveaway after 2007 and began Realtors® Care Day in 2009. It’s been held every year since except for 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic forced cancellation. In 2021, the event is slated to be held on September 24 provided it can be done safely because of the pandemic. 

Realtors® Care Day consists of agents fanning out by the hundreds in Mecklenburg, Iredell (and soon Haywood) counties to do repairs and projects to help low- to moderate-income homeowners stay in their homes. 

Since its start, Realtors® Care Day has assisted 271 families and nonprofits for a collective economic impact of more than $1 million. The Foundation has also added other notable programs through the years: the Humanitarian Award in 2007, the Strides for Shelter 5K Run/Walk and Project R.E.A.C.H. in 2016, and the Pearl Society benefactor group and YES Award in 2019.

Overall, the Foundation’s success derives from Realtors® understanding the impact of their Foundation and having a longstanding commitment to community involvement.